Economic rebound is described as robust for Zhuhai despite a drop in local Gross Domestic Product of 2.5 percent year-on-year to 159 billion yuan ($23 billion) in the first half of this year.

The city Statistics Bureau reported July 23 an output value of 5.19 billion yuan ($740 million) for the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industries, a year-on-year decline of 5.4 percent. As production resumed, the rate of decrease narrowed by 2 percentage points since the first quarter.

Value added of industrial enterprises above designated size tallied a year-on-year decrease of 6.9 percent in the first six months, while its growth rate climbed from -20.7 percent in the first quarter to 13.6 percent in the second.

The tertiary industry has also been on a steady recovery track as a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent was recorded in value added. Information transmission, software, and information technology enterprises above designated size, for instance, achieved 3.9-percent growth from January to May due to increasing demands for online education and work.

Vigorous Zhuhai (shown are Yeli Island with Zhuhai Opera House at far left, Haibin Park, Xianglu Bay & Beach, Haibin Beach and downtown Jida at right, and HZM Bridge in the distance) [Photo courtesy Guanhai App]

Total retail sales of consumer goods declined 16.8 percent to 39.85 billion yuan ($5.68 billion), a less severe drop by 5.3 percentage point than for January-March. The wholesale, retail, accommodation, and catering sectors are also recovering although year-on-year revenue dropped by 2.8, 15.2, 41.9, and 35.1 percent respectively, which is 4.1, 12.8, 5.4, and 16.2 percentage points less than the downward trend of the first quarter.

Remarkably, the city's fix-asset investment (excluding farmers) grew by 13.5 percent year-on-year to 102.16 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) in the first half of this year.

In terms of foreign trade, import-export value plummeted 14.6 percent to 117.8 billion yuan ($16.8 billion), 2.8 percentage points lower than that of the first quarter.

The number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises increased by 122.6 percent to 1,249 during the January-June period, and 1,045 of them are in Hengqin New Area. The actual use of direct foreign investment rose by 6.2 percent to $1.62 billion.

As of late June, Zhuhai was home to 364,800 business entities, with the number of newly established ones having grown by 4.5 percent year-on-year to 21,200.

Meanwhile, the registered urban unemployment rate was 2.33 percent, well below the annul target of 3 percent. In total, 22 billion ($3.15 billion) was spent on livelihood items, accounting for 65.7 percent of general public budget expenditure.